1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to structures for damming water courses, controlling and directing water flow, working and support structures where outer fabric sleeves are formed and connected together in side by side relationship, in cascade arrangement, and the like, forming a dam, water course, or the like, and provides for fitting and anchoring a fish ladder type structure at a location across the water course to accommodate upstream migration of fish to their spawning grounds.
2. Prior Art
A need for easily installable and versatile dam structures, and the like, particularly structures that are primarily water or air filled, are relatively inexpensive, non-permanent, reusable and are durable, has been early recognized by the inventor who has been awarded U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,059,065 and 5,125,767 for forming and joining water structures together, forming hydraulic damming structures, and in a recent U.S. Pat. No. 6,364,571, sets out a combination of water transfer and damning structures and platforms. Such water structures have been found to be very useful for safely and reliably containing water and for directing water, and can be useful for controlling hazardous waste, oil or chemical spills, for flood control, and the like. Further, such water structures are also useful, for example, for temporary damming operations such as may be involved in agricultural water storage, construction, for de-watering work sites, fields, or the like, and may even be appropriate for use as permanent or long term structures. These prior art patents of the inventor recognized that fluid filled flexible water control structures and barriers can be used for retention and storage of water, control of water flow and wave action.
A number of configurations of dams and barriers of others have been developed as both semi-permanent and temporary structures. For example, in U.S. Patents to: Hornbostel, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 3,373,568; Sample, U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,691; Brodersen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,821; Hendrix, U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,919; Roach, U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,416; Melin, U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,806; and Miller, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,564 show various containment, dam and barrier configurations from permanent to portable structures, and include, as shown in the patent to Brodersen, a structure for encircling a chemical or oil spill.
Additionally, applicant has filed a U.S. patent application on a “Water Containment Structure”, Ser. No. 10/349,249, dated Jan. 23, 2003, that the water structure for mounting the fish ladder of the invention is suitable for use with. Where this earlier patent application does show various combination of flexible sleeves that are individually joined, as by sewing, into appropriate shapes, and with each inner sleeve to receive a tube or tubes that are filled with water to form a containment structure for a particular area or need, this application, however, does not involve a fish ladder structure and its mounting arrangement as does the invention.
The particular connected sleeves that are formed to hold water or to receive water filled tubes of the invention are unique to the above cited U.S. patent application for a “Water Containment Structure”, and their use with a fish ladder like that of the invention is unique. Heretofore, however, other specialty water filled structures have been employed as shown, for example, in Thompson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,591; Sample, U.S. Pat. No. 4,966,491; Taylor, U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,392; Eaker, U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,455, and Strong, U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,577. Such systems have generally involved inflatable envelope arrangements and could, within the scope of this disclosure, but have not been utilized with a fish ladder like that of the invention, as shown. Similarly other examples of water structures are shown in patents to Swain, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,861,158 and to Carter, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,362.